No set role for UMBC's Grimm

For much of his first three seasons at UMBC, Rob Grimm spent his time as an attackman. But 2012 was different as the senior was shifted to midfield.

After making his first five starts there, Grimm started at attack in Saturday night’s 13-5 loss to No. 7 Loyola. He scored three goals, including two on extra-man opportunities.

But coach Don Zimmerman declined to describe the move as either temporary or permanent.

“It’s neither,” he said Tuesday morning. “We’re just exploring all of our options, and we’re trying to teach our offensive players to play from both in front and from behind the goal.”

In addition to Grimm making his first start of the season at attack, junior Scott Hopmann made his first start of the season at midfield. Filling in the coid created by the two-game suspension of junior Dave Brown for violating an unspecified team policy, Hopmann took four shots without scoring a goal, but did finish with an assist.

“I thought he did OK,” Zimmerman said of Hopmann, who has been trying to get back into shape after missing the preseason and the season opener because of a hamstring injury. “Scott needs to continue to work on getting in midseason form. We’ve got a lot of confidence that Scott will step up and continue to improve. But I don’t think he’s there yet. But certainly, he’s working toward that.”